Story of the Eye

In 1928, Georges Bataille published this first novel under a pseudonym, a legendary shocker that uncovers the dark side of the erotic by means of forbidden obsessive fantasies of excess and sexual extremes. A classic of pornographic literature, Story of the Eye finds the parallels in Sade and Nietzsche and in the investigations of contemporary psychology; it also

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Overview

In 1928, Georges Bataille published this first novel under a pseudonym, a legendary shocker that uncovers the dark side of the erotic by means of forbidden obsessive fantasies of excess and sexual extremes. A classic of pornographic literature, Story of the Eye finds the parallels in Sade and Nietzsche and in the investigations of contemporary psychology; it also forecasts Bataille's own theories of ecstasy, death and transgression which he developed in later work.

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Editorial Reviews

Steven Lee Beeber

The main thing to keep in mind is that The Story of the Eye was written in France at the height of the Surrealist movement. As such, it addresses the most cherished of Gallic intellectual concerns. The forbidden vs. Catholicism. Bourgeois behavior vs. primitive passion. Even that old saw about faith and redemption (as opposed to good clean sin) gets a workout. Yet never, ever does it become pedantic.

Maybe it's because there seems to be something truly sincere about it all. Or maybe it's because the action comes fast and furious around the soliloquies. While the author's intent might have been to draw the line between the eye (sight/knowledge) and the groin (passion/feeling), the result is a damn hot read -- not only in the "one-handed sense," but also in the classic intellectual tradition. Images and metaphors leap out at you like the lightning crack of ejaculation, when you squeeze your eyes closed and see geometric shapes, all spiderwebbery and gleaming.Playboy.com

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What People are saying about this

Jean Paul Sartre

"Bataille denudes himself, exposes himself, his exhibitionism aims at destroying all literature. He has a holocaust of words. The tale speaks about man's condition, not his nature. His tone recalls the scornful aggressiveness of the surrealist. The tale has survived the death of God. In him, reality is conflict."

Susan Sontag

"Bataille's work...indicated the aesthetic possibilities of pornography as an art form: 'Story of the Eye' being the most accomplished artistically of all pornographic prose I've read."